Actually "dbo" is the default schema for more than one Microsoft database product, including SQL Server. I'm guessing that is the software being used. I took a quick look at article, but couldn't confirm this.

Right there with you, GameBizGirl. I was going to make a Doctor Doolittle comment, but found you beat me to it. I've never seen the movie, but read the "Voyages of Doctor Doolittle" as a kid, and still remember the Great Glass Sea Snail. I would have given anything to be Tommy Stubbins...

The difference between these two bands was brought home at Lollapalooza '06. The Violent Femmes played on Friday, and included Gone Daddy Gone in their set. On Saturday it was Gnarls Barkley's turn. My friends and I couldn't help but laugh. The Violent Femmes show had the excitement and energy that a good live band can bring. Gnarls Barkley? Let's just say they're more of a "studio band"...

Pope Ratzo,

This seems to be a known issue with the Sansa Clip and Ubuntu 8.04, although perhaps it's just with the 64-bit version of the OS. My Clip works perfectly if I boot into Windows. (But we all know how painful that can be...)

Actually the Sansa Clip has a 4GB version, for $80 US. It includes a radio, and a recorder that can record either voice or from the radio. Not sure about Mac support, but there's DnD support on both Windows and Linux. (Although the recognition on my OS of choice, Ubuntu, is a bit spotty. I find pulling the USB plug half out and reinserting does the trick.) I've really been enjoying mine the past couple of months.

The interview with Leonard Ross is intriguing. The $64,000 Challenge was rigged, as has been well documented. The Big Surprise was never implicated, but that could be due to its cancellation before the quiz show scandal broke. And who was the host of The Big Surprise from 1956 through 1957? One Mike Wallace...

I guess using the title of the book might cause some legal troubles, but it seems like a bit of free advertising to me.

I love the socks because they took me back to my wasted youth for a moment. The runes used in the writing are the Norse Futhark, or one of the related scripts, which I guess most fans of Tolkien already know. Unfortunately I didn't know when I was a lad, and deciphered them myself. However it wasn't from Tolkien, it was from Ozzy Osbourne's Speak of the Devil album, which used a related runic script, the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc. When I realized that one of the messages on the album contained the text "Ozzy Osbourne", I used the method described in Poe's "The Gold Bug" and my trusty VIC-20 computer to decipher the rest. On the inside of the album sleeve was a touching tribute to Randy Rhoads. (Yes, I'm old AND a nerd.) Too bad I hadn't read Tolkien first! :)

@BOLAMIG

Actually they remove the capacitor in the how-to, and rely on the transformer in the circuit. So it's less dangerous. Not that I'm defending this prank, I don't find it funny.

"Language is a virus from outer space" - William S. Burroughs...

Everyone's looking for subtlety in Bush's admiration of this painting. There is none. It's plain to see why he likes it. The man in the painting looks somewhat like Bush, and he's charging up a mountain. leading all the others. Bush is projecting himself into the action. That's as deep as Bush will ever get.

It's probably obvious, but you would be hard pressed to find someone who dislikes Bush more than I do. However this armchair psychiatry is a bunch of crap. I might come up with a similar story behind the painting if I were told it was titled "A Charge to Keep". Now if it were my favorite painting, I would probably look into its background. But I think I'm safe in assuming Bush doesn't have my intellectual curiosity.

HDR photos are created by taking multiple shots at different exposures using a tripod-mounted camera, and are then combined using software. One popular tool for doing this is available from Photomatix, but it can also be done in recent versions of Photoshop. The Photomatix software can also create a pseudo-HDR effect using a single photo. Typically a digital photo contains more detail than can be displayed. The Photomatix software compresses the contrast of the elements in the scene, and allows more detail to be displayed in the shadow and highlight areas.

However, this photo uses another technique as well, Known as the Orton technique. Originally this technique was performed using positive (slide) film. One photo was taken with normal focus, and another where the scene was out of focus. These two photos were then sandwiched together in the same slide mount, giving saturated colors and a dreamy, soft focus kind of effect. This can be accomplished using Photoshop, by creating a duplicate layer and using Gaussian blur on it. The duplicate layer is then blended in using the layers palette. The photo above uses this very subtly, and the second layer probably wasn't blurred very much.

Is it just me, or is Mammaquatia a word just begging to be picked up by some sitcom hack? I can't help but imagine it oozing off the tongue of some stereotypical sexist as a full-figured woman strolls by...

When you know Marston's background, the fetishism is blatant!

Unfortunately this kind of crap has proliferated in recent years. The main issue is publishing the images. You can take all the pictures of things you own that you want, you just can't publish them without explicit permission.

This is true of more things than you might imagine, even things that might seem to be in the public domain. This includes statues, buildings, even the lighting schemes of buildings. For instance here in Chicago, Marina City recently took issue with one of its tenants for taking photos. The towers that make up Marina City were used in the film "The Hunter", and they appear in other films, as well as on the album cover of Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot". The rules on taking photos of buildings are a little fuzzy, depending on when the building was constructed.

Just to make it clear, I'm not in favor of this. As a photographer, I find it to be a major pain and indefensible in general. But if someone wants to enforce these rules and has money for lawyers, the current laws are on their side.

Ah, the link to "I Love To Singa" took me back. Reminded me of this cartoon. But this is one of my faves. Can't help it, I'm a sucker for the visual puns.

Yes, Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs would be ecstatic with this. If you input The Third Mind, do you get the original texts?

This isn't as dangerous as it looks. None of the people in the pool are in a position to complete the electrical circuit. If the extension cord is submerged, the current will flow from the live wire to the ground wire, since that is the path of least resistance.

The reason why a bathtub is more dangerous than this situation is the plumbing provides a path to ground. (For watchers of Mythbusters, I believe this is why they originally had trouble with their experiment. They were using a set, and the bathtub was not grounded in any way.) But even that might not be fatal, unless the person is foolish enough to pick up the submerged appliance out of the water while in the tub.

For a more info, check here.

However, having said all of this, would I try it? No way in hell!

Although the Synesthesia program looks pretty cool, it has nothing to do with the original story. The link you want is http://www.pianowizard.com/

Oh you heathen, Kabbalist, Commie, Copernicanist, Big-Bangism spouting, Evolutionist fools! Don't you know anything?! The Michelson-Morley experiments had nothing to do with aether, they proved the Earth doesn't move!!!!! (http://www.fixedearth.com/Assumptions.htm)

Just joking of course, but the discussion reminded me of the Fixed Earth site. I don't believe this crap, but someone in the Texas state legislature does, enough to send links to all of the other legislators.
But I thought the creator of the site was a lone nut. Much to my dismay, I realized how many people agree with his interpretation of the experiments. Google pulled back a frightening number of sites that stated the same thing.

Just a small follow up to my post above. As kknox mentioned, the sunlight will cause the benzoyl peroxide to break down into free radicals, which are even better oxidizing agents.

Benzoyl peroxide is an oxidizing bleach, which works by breaking the chemical bonds in the chromophores in a dye or pigment. Breaking these chemical bonds either change the molecules into a substance that doesn't contain a chromophore, or one in which the chromophore doesn't absorb visible light. Sunlight will also disrupt these chemical bonds. The combination of the two speeds the reaction.

I would be careful using this technique with rubber. If I remember correctly, benzoyl peroxide will react with it, although it may only be a problem at higher concentrations than in common acne creams.